IndexNature of the companyVision/Mission/ObjectivesManagement culture and styleRelevant background/historyStructureAn organization chart/The structure of your department/The reporting structureThe title of those you work withYour responsibilities, if any relations with Government/Political aspectsThe market/Market share/CompetitorsThe legal positionCollaborations/Joint ventures global company? Local vs. International Nature of the Company Founded in 1832 Fernite has built a world-class reputation as a manufacturer of machine blades. Fernite of Sheffield Limited is a machine knife and steel stockholder company that sells spring steel strip and specializes in supplying small quantities of steel to small and medium sized businesses. Fernite operates in the food, printing, packaging, plastics and recycling industries, supplying the world's leading brands with high-quality products. There are four divisions of the company: Print Blade, Fernite Machine Knife, BSS Spring Steel Strip and AF Whiteley Granulator Blades. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Mechanical knives are used in manufacturing processes involving any form of cutting operation. Granulator blades are used in the recycling and plastics industry for size reduction, doctor blades are used in industrial printing machinery. Spring steel strips are used in a variety of applications including tool making, spring forming, cutlery manufacturing and medical instruments. Vision/Mission/ObjectivesFernite of Sheffield Limited believes in building a great manufacturing business in the UK. They aim to be their customers' preferred supplier, but also believe in producing great products with friendly, reliable service. To do this, they put a lot of effort into customer support so that customers get the best service in terms of reliability and also troubleshooting by responding to problems encountered by customers. Another thing the company aims to do is to build a great workplace for its employees so that they can enjoy working in the environment around them. Furthermore, the company invests in new technologies and aims to continue doing so, while also investing in upgrading existing technology. Fernite takes pride in what they do, because they only produce quality products that make them reflect other companies in the industry. Fernite's vision statement is: "We believe in building a great manufacturing business in the UK, recognized as a supplier of choice to our customers, producing great quality products with a friendly, reliable service. Fernite will be a great place to work for great employees, generating a sustainable profit" Culture and management style Fernite of Sheffield Limited is an exporting company serving markets around the world, including Europe, USA. States of America, Asia, Australia and many others. They have a culture of problem solving, which means that if a customer has a problem with a blade, they will do their best to fix it, whether it is an issue with cutting performance, delivery time, or durability. Fernite is a passionate company that has belief, energy and enthusiasm to be the best in everything the company does. The company invests not only in technology but also in its team. Fernite recently expanded its team with four new roles which are "Group Operations Manager", "Group Technical Manager", "Production Engineer" and "Marketing Executive". When it comes to technology, Fernite has recently invested intwo new cars. One of them is a warehouse packing machine that has made shipping products faster and cheaper. The other new machine is XYZ 1020 VMC which is a CNC vertical machining center. That machine's vertically oriented spindles come together mounted on table pieces. Since the machine is solid, it can cut heavy and fast with more precision. It is similar to some of the older machines from the factory but is a newer upgraded version, also it has a user-friendly interface which makes the machine easy to use for operators. Fernite invests in its employees and engages them with the company's values ​​and goals. Team leaders are trained in team management and given the responsibility and freedom to manage their own departments. Relevant background/history The city of Sheffield's proud relationship with cutlery manufacturing began in the 15th century and this is when Sheffield first received its charter. In the following centuries the city's impressive reputation continued to flourish. By the mid-1600s, the city's notoriety for producing the finest cutlery in England was so great that Chaucer even alludes to it in "The Canterbury Tales." What allowed Sheffield to clearly become a world pioneer in the steel industry was its ability to exploit progressive advances in metallurgy. From the mid-18th century onwards, these brought incredible advances in the forms of cutlery making used in the city. The invention of the Bessemer converter and the Hunter technique were two of the main reasons that led Sheffield to transform from a small town into one of the major industrial cities of Europe. Before the creation of the open hearth furnace, the Bessemer converter was known to be the first economical industrial method for mass producing steel from cast iron. By blowing through the molten iron by oxidation with air, impurities were removed from the iron which is the most important principle. The hunter technique used a coke-fueled furnace capable of reaching 1,600 degrees Celsius. This furnace had room for twelve pots or so-called clay crucibles and each of those pots was capable of holding fifteen kilograms of iron. Before cooling, a crystalline structure was produced from the complete melting of the steel, which after cooling gave the steel greater strength and hardness than other steels produced at that time. Cauldron steel and silver plating created immense amounts of riches. here, at least for the wealthy steel producers. On the other hand, conditions for most workers were poor, with congestion, uncontrolled contamination from processing plants and smelters, and disease. Fernite of Sheffield Limited is one of the oldest mechanical knife manufacturers in the world. It was founded in 1832 as Fearnehough and Sons Limited by Joseph Fearnehough. Under the leadership of Joseph and his family the company advanced through a series of changes such as changing its name to "Fernite", which was actually derived from its founder's last name. Fernite is a brand that speaks of genuine Sheffield quality in machine knife making. The organization moved to Darnall in 1969, which is its current location, and in 1996 the Fearnehough and Sons Ltd. organization changed its name to the Fernite brand. The 'Made in Sheffield' mark is respected throughout the UK and around the world for excellence in manufacturing, and Fernite of Sheffield Limited carries that mark because every Fernite item is made in Sheffield. Fernite has a beautiful legacy, impeccable notoriety and developing relationships with customers around the world, which it gladly continues tobe cultivated and maintained by the organization. Structure Fernite is a limited liability company, owned by the managing director. The company has 37 employees. The Fernite of Sheffield Limited company structure is team-based. The teams are as follows: Shipping team Production team Sales team Technical team Operations team Management team Each team is led by a team leader, who is responsible for managing their section of the business. Team leaders have been trained in managing people and organizing their departments to function efficiently. Overall, my opinion is that the company has a clear vision and goals on what it wants to achieve. This, combined with their history and how they value and appreciate their customers, will help them grow in the future. An organizational chart/The structure of your department/The reporting structureMembers of the production "Dispatch" teams and the two "Production" teams report to their team leaders. Then the team leaders report to the “Head of Operations” who then reports to the “CEO”. People with the job titles "Accounting" and "Steel Sales" along with the "Marketing Director", "Senior Customer Service Executive" and the "Customer Service Executive" report to the "Sales Manager". Then the "Manager of Sales" reports to the "Managing Director". People with the qualification of "Technical Sales Engineer", "Production Engineer" together with people with the qualification of "Maintenance Technician" report to the "Technical Manager" who reports to the 'chief executive. The title of those you work with My role in the company is software developer My job involves working closely with the managing director of Fernite of Sheffield Limited and the management team Management team have the following titles: Chief Executive Officer, who has overall responsibility for managing the company and its strategy. Group Sales Manager, responsible for the sales team, developing customer relationships and exploring new markets in the UK and abroad in order to expand the company's reach. Group Operations Manager responsible for running the factory and managing Fernite's operations. Technical director of the group responsible for optimizing Fernite processes, reducing production times and ensuring the best use of technology on the workshop market. My job often involves working with the senior customer service executive, steel sales engineer, warehouse team leader, and manufacturing team leader. The tasks you need to perform/How they relate to the overall goals of the organization. As part of the Fernite team, my work involves designing and developing software that helps Fernite automate some of its processes. So far I have created two software applications. One of these two applications is involved in the sales department of Fernite and is used by the sales team. Its purpose is to increase sales of laser-cut parts by speeding up the sales process of that type of work, allowing sales managers to propose a price to the customer regarding his request much faster than before. By filling in only a small amount of details using the software, the sales manager will have the ability to formulate a request with just a couple of buttons because the software itself has within it the necessary logic for creating such a request. This means that once you provide the requested information, the software will generate the request automatically instead of the sales manager doing it manually. Software is created with languageof VisualBasic.NET programming and is a WindowsForm application with an intuitive design and easy to navigate between different windows or so-called forms. The Windows application offers two options: use a specific type of text file sent by the customer or manually fill in a couple of boxes with information provided by the customer over the phone in case they don't have the necessary file. To achieve this, the software interacts heavily with the company's databases. This means there are many queries such as "Insert", "Update" and "Select". These queries are used to store, update, or export data. The other software is related to managing priority jobs in the workshop. I was tasked with developing software that displayed a list of urgent tasks for each operation in the factory, to improve workflow across the factory and ensure orders were completed on time. This is a table containing information about open and active jobs in the workshop. The application is exporting accurate data from the database in real time using SQL queries and displaying jobs for each work center location in the production floor sorted by due date. Not only that, but it's also prioritizing jobs so the team at each location knows which operation to start first. This means that if a job is assigned a higher priority, the table row containing information about that job will change color. This will indicate that it is urgent for this work to be finished and that I should start as soon as possible. Since the application is a WindowsForm based application created with VisualBasic.Net. The extracted data is displayed in custom DataGridView available from the Toolbox located on the Designer tab. This will help Fernite to better manage its orders without delays, which means that the number of late jobs will decrease dramatically leading the company to continue to meet deadlines and reduce delivery times for customers. Your responsibilities My responsibilities include updating and providing support for the company's existing software, which means that whenever any software fails with exporting data from the database or something else it is my responsibility to delete the error and make sure it doesn't appear again. Another responsibility I have to do is to take care of the databases so that they are not interrupted by error data and also to design new databases. Furthermore, another responsibility of mine on a daily basis is to provide IT support for information technology in the factory. This means that if there is a problem with one of the office printers or computers it is my responsibility to take care of the problem. I witnessed the installation of new PCs and their configuration as new staff members joined the company. Common requests I deal with include network connection issues, hardware troubleshooting and maintenance, assisting colleagues with software requests, cable management, and assistance accessing information from company databases. Any Government Relationships/Political Aspects Fernite is an export company that reports sales and exports to the government. Political aspects include the payment of necessary tariffs and duties on imports and exports set by governments. The country's customs authorities collect types of payments called import duties on imports and some exports, usually based on the value of the imported goods. Fernite is a member of the local chamber of commerce, a business network that provides support, advice and a voice for businesses in the region. The Chamber of Commerce interacts with governments.